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The NeXT Computer is now 37 years old!
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#41
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 13, 2026, 06:25 AMAlso from Hayakawa Yoshinori:
https://github.com/y-hayakawa/nxchat - ChatGPT client for NS3.3
https://github.com/y-hayakawa/telnetd - Telnet daemon for NS3.3J
I'm not sure why he wrote another telnet daemon—as long as you set a password for the me account, OS4.2 will run one for you (also FTP.) Maybe this somehow got omitted in 3.3J? At any rate, it could be useful as a stub for building other TCP-based daemons.
https://github.com/y-hayakawa/nxchat - ChatGPT client for NS3.3
https://github.com/y-hayakawa/telnetd - Telnet daemon for NS3.3J
I'm not sure why he wrote another telnet daemon—as long as you set a password for the me account, OS4.2 will run one for you (also FTP.) Maybe this somehow got omitted in 3.3J? At any rate, it could be useful as a stub for building other TCP-based daemons.
#42
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 13, 2026, 06:20 AMQuote from: ptek on Jun 13, 2026, 04:06 AMhttps://github.com/y-hayakawa/vboxmouse VirtualBox Mouse driver by Y HayakawaOh, wow. I had no idea this existed. Time to go add this to everything!
#43
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by ptek - Jun 13, 2026, 04:06 AMhttps://github.com/y-hayakawa/vboxmouse VirtualBox Mouse driver by Y Hayakawa
#44
Software / Re: Rolling Community Distros ...
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 12, 2026, 06:47 PMToday I realized that I inadvertently made #2 on this list, an OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach White Developer VM:
I have had some bad experiences getting DualDeveloper working (I don't think it's smart enough to work with 3.3+4.2 as originally believed, it definitely isn't happy with the WebObjects 3.5 version) so I'll probably skip that for now. Next image will be Capricorn, with the latest tools from turbolent, kb7sqi, and others built.
- http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z
- http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z.txt
I have had some bad experiences getting DualDeveloper working (I don't think it's smart enough to work with 3.3+4.2 as originally believed, it definitely isn't happy with the WebObjects 3.5 version) so I'll probably skip that for now. Next image will be Capricorn, with the latest tools from turbolent, kb7sqi, and others built.
#45
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by ZombiePhysicist - Jun 12, 2026, 02:32 PMThe faux NeXT at 50% the size is interesting. I wonder i you could scale it up to make full scale reproductions.
#46
Software / Re: List of NeXT-related repos...
Last post by wmlive - Jun 12, 2026, 09:38 AMQuote from: Rhetorica on Jun 12, 2026, 08:09 AM(I left out GNUstep-based stuff for brevity. Obviously there's a lot of that, too, since both GNUstep and Gershwin are on GitHub. No shade intended to wmlive; I think we just need another thread for the GNUstep universe, for clarity!)Excellent reasoning!
In fact, the GNUstep developers don't like at all to be considered NeXT nostalgists and have since long departed from just being an OPENSTEP clone. Instead, they are working to build a Mac OS compatible development environment.
Just like Apple made Mac OS being the legit continuation of NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP, the good people from GNUstep are making sure to evolve their development approach in a very similar vein.
#47
Off Topic / The steady demise of x86
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 12, 2026, 08:22 AMWell, it's been a long time coming. macOS 27 drops Intel support, and it looks like projects such as Homebrew are preparing to follow suit. Given that Microsoft has been shipping ARM-powered laptops for even longer than Apple, how much longer do you reckon the entirety of the amd64 ecosystem will be considered mainstream? A decade? Less than that? (And will RISC-V ever achieve true world domination?)
#48
Software / List of NeXT-related repos on ...
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 12, 2026, 08:09 AMWe need a thread of this. Here's everything I've found without trying:
https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-interceptor-example - Example for OPENSTEP's private Interceptor framework
https://github.com/turbolent/RTL8139 - RTL8139 ethernet driver for OPENSTEP
https://github.com/turbolent/BusMasterIDE - Bus Master IDE ATA/ATAPI driver for OPENSTEP
https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-pkg - includes GCC 3.3 and the above two drivers (source only)
https://github.com/turbolent/netsurf-openstep - NetSurf for OPENSTEP (source only, needs above repo)
https://github.com/jpasqua/FauxNeXT - A 50% scale Recreation of the NeXT computer (there are many like it—but this one is from a NeXT kernel dev)
https://github.com/NattyNarwhal/vnd-nextstep - Port of NetBSD/Darwin vnd driver to NeXTSTEP 3.x (mount files as disks; unfinished)
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/MathEdit - MathEdit for OpenStep
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/VBoxMouse - unfinished project to do a new mouse driver for VirtualBox
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/VBoxVideo - updated 1080p graphics driver for VirtualBox
https://github.com/calmsacibis995/xnu-rhapsody-53 - The sources for the kernel of Darwin 0.1.
https://github.com/evolver56k/VMWareFB_OpenStep - VMWareFB OpenStep display driver—run OpenStep and NeXTStep in VMWare in high color and high res
https://github.com/evolver56k/Darwin-0.3 - Darwin 0.3 sources released under the APSL
https://github.com/evolver56k/UsbOHCI.0.5beta - Howard Cole's OHCI USB Driver for Openstep
https://github.com/userLevel/next - Various documentation
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDimension - NeXTdimension source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTMach - NeXT Mach Kernel mk-2.0.98 (late build of 2.0, improv beta ≤ this ≤ final 2.0 release)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDSP - Digital Signal Processor source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTEmacs - emacs-12 source (Oct 1990, probably the least unique thing in here)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTROM - ROM source (readme suggests this is 0.8.31, dated Feb 16, 1989)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDPS - Display Postscript source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTSrc - compiler and various libraries, again from the same era as the rest of johnsonjh's repos
https://github.com/itomato/lubu - OpenStep for Solaris 1.1 with some polish
https://github.com/Asmodai/NeXT-Docs - nsa33, nd33, and IN FOCUS articles in HTML format
https://github.com/rjbrown99/next - NeXTStep and OpenStep patches for various open source software
https://github.com/rhaleblian/backstep - Experimentation with software back-porting to NEXTSTEP
https://github.com/stevenshack/steppingstone - A vibe coded pipeline by hook or by crook to convert NeXTStep apps to GNUStep.
And of course https://sourceforge.net/projects/previous/ - the one and only!
Do you have NeXTy repos that should be added to this list? Post 'em!
(I left out GNUstep-based stuff for brevity. Obviously there's a lot of that, too, since both GNUstep and Gershwin are on GitHub. No shade intended to wmlive; I think we just need another thread for the GNUstep universe, for clarity!)
https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-interceptor-example - Example for OPENSTEP's private Interceptor framework
https://github.com/turbolent/RTL8139 - RTL8139 ethernet driver for OPENSTEP
https://github.com/turbolent/BusMasterIDE - Bus Master IDE ATA/ATAPI driver for OPENSTEP
https://github.com/turbolent/openstep-pkg - includes GCC 3.3 and the above two drivers (source only)
https://github.com/turbolent/netsurf-openstep - NetSurf for OPENSTEP (source only, needs above repo)
https://github.com/jpasqua/FauxNeXT - A 50% scale Recreation of the NeXT computer (there are many like it—but this one is from a NeXT kernel dev)
https://github.com/NattyNarwhal/vnd-nextstep - Port of NetBSD/Darwin vnd driver to NeXTSTEP 3.x (mount files as disks; unfinished)
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/MathEdit - MathEdit for OpenStep
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/VBoxMouse - unfinished project to do a new mouse driver for VirtualBox
https://github.com/jeffreybergier/VBoxVideo - updated 1080p graphics driver for VirtualBox
https://github.com/calmsacibis995/xnu-rhapsody-53 - The sources for the kernel of Darwin 0.1.
https://github.com/evolver56k/VMWareFB_OpenStep - VMWareFB OpenStep display driver—run OpenStep and NeXTStep in VMWare in high color and high res
https://github.com/evolver56k/Darwin-0.3 - Darwin 0.3 sources released under the APSL
https://github.com/evolver56k/UsbOHCI.0.5beta - Howard Cole's OHCI USB Driver for Openstep
https://github.com/userLevel/next - Various documentation
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDimension - NeXTdimension source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTMach - NeXT Mach Kernel mk-2.0.98 (late build of 2.0, improv beta ≤ this ≤ final 2.0 release)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDSP - Digital Signal Processor source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTEmacs - emacs-12 source (Oct 1990, probably the least unique thing in here)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTROM - ROM source (readme suggests this is 0.8.31, dated Feb 16, 1989)
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTDPS - Display Postscript source, likely circa 1990
https://github.com/johnsonjh/NeXTSrc - compiler and various libraries, again from the same era as the rest of johnsonjh's repos
https://github.com/itomato/lubu - OpenStep for Solaris 1.1 with some polish
https://github.com/Asmodai/NeXT-Docs - nsa33, nd33, and IN FOCUS articles in HTML format
https://github.com/rjbrown99/next - NeXTStep and OpenStep patches for various open source software
https://github.com/rhaleblian/backstep - Experimentation with software back-porting to NEXTSTEP
https://github.com/stevenshack/steppingstone - A vibe coded pipeline by hook or by crook to convert NeXTStep apps to GNUStep.
And of course https://sourceforge.net/projects/previous/ - the one and only!
Do you have NeXTy repos that should be added to this list? Post 'em!
(I left out GNUstep-based stuff for brevity. Obviously there's a lot of that, too, since both GNUstep and Gershwin are on GitHub. No shade intended to wmlive; I think we just need another thread for the GNUstep universe, for clarity!)
#49
Software / Re: The Adams Brothers: A New ...
Last post by Adam_Hall - Jun 12, 2026, 06:43 AMWere these the guys (or at least one of them) who made up Circus Ponies? Was so disappointed when they gave up on MacOS note application they had developed.
#50
Virtualization / Re: Starter Kit for OPENSTEP 4...
Last post by Rhetorica - Jun 11, 2026, 11:36 PMFollowing some problems with my main OS4.2 VM, I decided to build a new machine and dogfood the guide. There were a few hiccups in it (mostly around networking) which I've corrected. I also realized that the disc contained the m68k version of Opener instead of the i386 version, which is obviously not very helpful.
Anyway, the practical upshot of all this is that I was able to make a machine using it:
I have uploaded a 'clean' virtualbox image of OS4.2 with dev tools, patches, drivers, OmniWeb, GKMouseScaler, and Opener.
97.5 MB: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z
Readme is here: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z.txt
The password for the me account is... password
This should be everything needed to get into OPENSTEP development.
There are some slight oddities around networking (it takes an unnecessarily long time to boot up, possibly due to searching for a NetInfo server that I told it not to go looking for) but aside from that, it should be a good starting point for anyone looking to spin up an x86 VM. (Remember, you can FTP into the NeXT machine to transfer files!)
Anyway, the practical upshot of all this is that I was able to make a machine using it:
I have uploaded a 'clean' virtualbox image of OS4.2 with dev tools, patches, drivers, OmniWeb, GKMouseScaler, and Opener.
97.5 MB: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z
Readme is here: http://archive.nextcommunity.net/VMs/OS42_i386_Dev_Betelgeuse.vbox.7z.txt
The password for the me account is... password
This should be everything needed to get into OPENSTEP development.
There are some slight oddities around networking (it takes an unnecessarily long time to boot up, possibly due to searching for a NetInfo server that I told it not to go looking for) but aside from that, it should be a good starting point for anyone looking to spin up an x86 VM. (Remember, you can FTP into the NeXT machine to transfer files!)